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Which 1959 crime did Truman Capote recount in In Cold Blood?
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In his seminal nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote recounts the 1959 murders of the Clutter family—Herb, Bonnie, and their teenage children, Nancy and Kenyon—in their home near Holcomb, Kansas.12
The crime was committed by two drifters, Perry Smith and Dick Hickok, who targeted the family under the false impression that a large fortune was kept in a safe at the farmhouse. Capote’s work, which is considered a cornerstone of the New Journalism movement, utilized the techniques of fiction to provide a detailed, sympathetic, and dramatic reconstruction of the murders, the subsequent investigation, and the eventual trial and execution of the killers.12